Affidavit Details FBI "Operation Payback" Probe

[Hissyspit]

Source: The Smoking Gun

Affidavit Details FBI "Operation Payback" Probe
4chan, "Anonymous" targeted over attacks on PayPal

DECEMBER 29--As part of an international criminal probe into computer attacks launched this month against perceived corporate enemies of WikiLeaks, the FBI has raided a Texas business and seized a computer server that investigators believe was used to launch a massive electronic attack on PayPal, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The FBI investigation began earlier this month after PayPal officials contacted agents and “reported that an Internet activist group using the names ‘4chan’ and “Anonymous” appeared to be organizing a distributed denial of service (“DDoS”) attack against the company,” according to an FBI affidavit excerpted here.

The PayPal assault was part of “Operation Payback,” an organized effort to attack firms that suspended or froze WikiLeaks’s accounts in the wake of the group’s publication of thousands of sensitive Department of State cables. As noted by the FBI, other targets of this “Anonymous” effort included Visa, Mastercard, Sarah Palin’s web site, and the Swedish prosecutor pursuing sex assault charges against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder.

On December 9, PayPal investigators provided FBI agents with eight IP addresses that were hosting an “Anonymous” Internet Relay Chat (IRC) site that was being used to organize denial of service attacks. The unidentified administrators of this IRC “then acted as the command and control” of a botnet army of computers that was used to attack target web sites.

Read more: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/affidavit-details-fbi-operation-payback-probe

[Pavulon]

1. I wonder what kind of charges are involved.

I hear federal prison is no fun. I think that when people plan and execute a crime together conspiracy is on the table. I think the average sentence for that can run 25 years.

[EFerrari]

2. I put this up in GD. Very interesting considering

that last I heard, FBI couldn't manage their own computer system.

[Pavulon]

4. I bet the FBI has all the resources they need on this one(nt)

[boppers]

9. PayPal's been volunteering for them, and there are other government agencies (not US) helping.

I'd assume Visa and Mastercard, as well.

Which is good for them, because based on the affidavit (putting the word virtual in quotes, among other things), they're a tad clueless.

[defendandprotect]

3. k/r

[saras]

5. Next step

Given the horrible mess the FBI made of shutting down the servers, the obvious next step is for groups like Anonymous to be sure their sites are hosted on servers that either belong to major right-wing folks, or would be inappropriately disruptive to shut down so crudely...

[Downwinder]

6. What "damage" was done to the computer system?

"unauthorized and knowing transmission of code or commands resulting in intentional damage to a protected computer system.”

More like rush hour on the freeway.

[Pavulon]

7. Most people pay companies like Hosted Solutions to serve their data

when some attacks a server they are not even attacking BOA or paypal. If they ran a DDOS attack against a banking system they are looking at a felony.

You dont need a gun to rob a bank.

[MilesColtrane]

8. I would bet that they prosecute this under the Computer Abuse and Fraud Act of 1986

There's a pretty broad definition of damage in it in regards to protected computers.

US Code: Title 18

...the term “protected computer” means a computer—
(A) exclusively for the use of a financial institution or the United States Government,...

the term “damage” means any impairment to the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system, or information;

[Downwinder]

10. If AT&T's router goes down and I can't get to my bank account.

I call out the FBI.

[Pavulon]

12. If someone ran an IOS exploit to take it down

then there is a crime. If some fucking moron cocks up OSPF there is not crime.

[Downwinder]

13. Chase was down for three days due to a bad update.

Call the FBI.

[Pavulon]

14. Fire TATA or WIPRO

is my bet. Still cant break systems that dont belong to you and not expect prison. Just the way it is.

[boppers]

15. April 13, 1998

If you can blame "systems", things change.

[glinda]

11. Couldn't they investigate where Bush/Cheney's missing cables went to instead?